Crews Go To Wrong House For Siding Job

NEW ULM, Minn. (WCCO) — When Marcella Sommers decided she needed to re-side her New Ulm home, she made a call to a Twin Cities area contractor — Schmidt roofing company.

“Why did I need new siding? Because of a hailstorm that did a lot of damage,” she said.

Work was set to begin last week on the quaint bungalow at that sits on 210 N. Franklin St. in New Ulm.

“I was laughing, I thought it was funny,” she said, upon learning that workers went to the wrong house.

But fellow New Ulm homeowner Jim Meyer didn’t find the humor. Imagine his wife’s surprise when she came home from work last week only to discover the crews ripping siding off their home instead.

“I got a phone call from my wife when I was at work, and she said, ‘Come home now.’ I was like why? ‘People are stealing our siding,'” Meyer said.

The Meyer’s home is at 210 S. Franklin. It’s the same address along the same street, but a mere four blocks away. You guessed right — the siding crew had stopped at the wrong house. Problem is, they didn’t discover the mistake until five hours into the job.

“They were supposed to go to 210 North,” Sommers said.

It’s easy to see how this mix-up happened. Sommers said she gets the wrong mail all the time. As a matter of fact, strangers often stop by and knock on her front door, expecting to find the Meyer’s.

Meyer understands, adding, “it’s happened a couple of times to us. Our friends go to her house, and they are quite surprised to find her instead of us.”

Now, crews with Schmidt Roofing are putting the finishing touches on their “original” siding job. Sommers is quite pleased with the work they’ve done.

Down the street, at 210 S. Franklin St., the Meyer’s “mistaken” home is prepped for a siding job they never ordered.

In contractor language you might just call it a two-for-one — a way to make good on a costly mistake.

Perhaps it’s news because many of us can see the humor in it. With all the people being killed in storms; gang violence; pedophiles being arrested, it’s a nice humor break. It’s such a shame that your life is such that you can’t find something to giggle about. I hope things get better for you.

This story is newsworthy, and everyone is a winner, including the Schmidt Roofing company who got free advertising. I am going to be residing my home soon and will now consider this company in the bidding process because they are following through with their mistake! Finding good contractors who take responsibility is hard to find these days and the Schmidt Roofing company looks like a top of the line service provider.

I dont think you got the point of what Jackie was saying, People get on here and complain that other stories the the news reports on shouldn’t make headlines. and this is one of them. Think of how much it did cost them to drive close to 2hours just for this story. and thats just one way. It might be news worthy for some, but Not HEADLINE… And what makes you think it’s ok to just start bashing people and their lives? Is kinda sad that you have to try to publicly talk down to a person that you dont know. maybe she is going through a hard time. maybe her house was hit in the tornado. maybe she feels like she has nothing or no one. but you keep putting people down.I’m sure it helps I’m sure you will now try to do the same to me. But then again, WHAT DO YOU CARE? YOU DONT,,,,, SO WHY SAY ANYTHING AT ALL?

I live in the cities, but am from the New Ulm area. I know people that work for Schmidt, and frankly, I don’t see why this story isn’t newsworthy. WCCO is about Minnesota, not just the cities. People live outside the metro area, shocking to a city slicker, I know….

The construction company is more than generous. Why are there 2 of the same address? why didn’t the person make sure they knew that and make sure it was the right house. Sounds like the owner wasn’t very nice not to make sure this didn’t happen.

“Questioning” made an ignorant comment and said: “Sounds like the owner wasn’t very nice not to make sure this didn’t happen”.

Are you for real? The contractor come out to THE house to measure the house for an estimate. And, then same contractor come out to THE Same house AGAIN to sign a Contract isn’t enough hand holding for you?

How many times do you want a contractor to come out to your house before you need to make sure he is at the right house?

You blame the HomeOwner for assuming that the Contractor would be smart enough to know where you live after he has ALREADY been at your house at least 2 times?

first the person that quoted , ie measured and got the order may not be the same as who actually went out and did the work… if the company is large enough to have several jobs going on at the same time… just a crew went out and then maybe the paperwork was incorrect or they misread it…

I actually worked with Schmidt Roofing as a part-time sales rep for a few years and had to laugh when I heard this on the radio…but I’m not surprised they stepped up and took care of it, they run a solid family business and whenever there was a problem or issue with a job, they made sure we took care of it. Sorry Clint and Corey, but I got a good laugh out of this…keep up the good work, just on the right house 🙂

Enough with the negative comments people. It’s as if you are dissapointed that some wasn’t sued or shot over this. The company made a mistake, and made it right by both homeowners. The homeowners were civil, and everyones happy. That is the way the world is SUPPOSED to work! If they weren’t so far away I’d hire Schmidt Roofing, just because of their business ethic, and I don’t even need siding or a roof!

“just a citizen”
you are so right, besides, the good will and publicity Schmidt Roofing is getting from this is well worth the cost they’re eating on the siding job; you can’t buy that kind of public goodwill. I’ll bet you their sales definitely spike as a result of this.

This is a very true and honest to life story. Try coming home one day and you realize that you were pulled into a civil suit over actions that you had no knowledge of for the past 2-3 years. The family at 210 S. Franklin St could be sued for unjust enrichment if they didn’t pay for the services on their house and the company still wanted their money. I see that nothing like this has ever affected you, turning your life upside down. Live a life.

If all of you want laughter in your lives look into the mirror. I for one do not consider this a laughing matter. In fact I find this one of those situations, where it shows peoples incompetence to the highest degree. I for one WOULD never have this company work on my house or business, granted they did fix their mistake, but it is a mistake that should have never made. If these people can’t find the correct address and start working on the wrong house instead, why in the world would I ever want them working on my roof or siding….

yup… don’t know the size of the company… but sales etc may of written up the order… crew went to the job… maybe address was not totally correct on the order… most likely someone will end up paying at least in docked time etc.

Eddie H…. people never make mistakes in a perfect world… yup… sure don’t… at least in your world… maybe your world includes one’s first consideration in situations like this to cover their ##@… which is a exceedingly wide spread and firmly believed behavior by our govt and professionals … maybe if more would admit and even learn from mistakes it would be a better world… would you not agree.